KINGDOM OF ACHIN.
ITS CAPITAL.
AIR.
INHABITANTS.
COMMERCE.
MANUFACTURES.
NAVIGATION.
COIN.
GOVERNMENT.
REVENUES.
PUNISHMENTS.
Achin (properly Acheh) is the only kingdom of Sumatra that ever arrived
to such a degree of political consequence in the eyes of the western
people as to occasion its transactions becoming the subject of general
history. But its present condition is widely different from what it was
when by its power the Portuguese were prevented from gaining a footing in
the island, and its princes received embassies from all the great
potentates of Europe.
SITUATION.
Its situation occupies the north-western extreme of the island, bordering
generally on the country of the Battas; but, strictly speaking, its
extent, inland, reaches no farther than about fifty miles to the
southeast. Along the north and eastern coast its territory was
considered in 1778 as reaching to a place called Karti, not far distant
from Batubara river, including Pidir, Samerlonga, and Pase. On the
western coast, where it formerly boasted a dominion as far down as
Indrapura, and possessed complete jurisdiction at Tiku, it now extends no
farther than Barus; and even there, or at the intermediate ports,
although the Achinese influence is predominant and its merchants enjoy
the trade, the royal power seems to be little more than nominal. The
interior inhabitants from Achin to Singkel are distinguished into those
of Allas, Riah, and Karrau. The Achinese manners prevail among the two
former; but the last resemble the Battas, from whom they are divided by a
range of mountains.
CAPITAL.
The capital stands on a river which empties itself by several channels
near the north-west point of the island, or Achin Head, about a league
from the sea, where the shipping lies in a road rendered secure by the
shelter of several islands. The depth of water on the bar being no more
than four feet at low-water spring-tides, only the vessels of the country
can venture to pass it; and in the dry monsoon not even those of the
larger class. The town is situated on a plain, in a wide valley formed
like an amphitheatre by lofty ranges of hills. It is said to be extremely
populous, containing eight thousand houses, built of bamboos and rough
timbers, standing distinct from each other and mostly raised on piles
some feet above the ground in order to guard against the effects of
inundation. The appearance of the place and nature of the buildings
differ little from those of the generality of Malayan bazaars, excepting
that its superior wealth has occasioned the erection of a greater number
of public edifices, chiefly mosques, but without the smallest pretension
to magnificence. The country above the town is highly cultivated, and
abounds with small villages and groups of three or four houses, with
white mosques interspersed.*
(*Footnote. The following description of the appearance of Achin, by a
Jesuit missionary who touched there in his way to China in 1698, is so
picturesque, and at the same time so just, that I shall make no apology
for introducing it. Imaginez vous une foret de cocotiers, de bambous,
d'ananas, de bagnaniers, au milieu de laquelle passe une assez belle
riviere toute couverte de bateaux; mettez dans cette foret une nombre
incroyable de maisons faites avec de cannes, de roseaux, des ecorces, et
disposez les de telle maniere qu'elles forment tantot des rues, et tantot
des quartiers separes: coupez ces divers quartiers de prairies et de
bois: repandez par tout dans cette grande foret, autant d'hommes qu'on en
voit dans nos villes, lorsqu'elles sont bien peuplees; vous vous formerez
une idee assez juste d'Achen; et vous conviendrez qu'une ville de ce gout
nouveau peut faire plaisir a des etrangers qui passent. Elle me parut
d'abord comme ces paysages sortis de l'imagination d'un peintre ou d'un
poete, qui rassemble sous un coup d'oeil, tout ce que la campagne a de
plus riant. Tout est neglige et naturel, champetre et meme un peu
sauvage. Quand on est dans la rade, on n'appercoit aucun vestige, ni
aucune apparence de ville, parceque des grands arbres qui bordent le
rivage en cachent toutes les maisons; mais outre le paysage qui est tres
beau, rien n'est plus agreable que de voir de matin un infinite de petits
bateaux de pecheurs qui sortent de la riviere avec le jour, et qui ne
rentrent que le soir, lorsque le soleil se couche. Vous diriez un essaim
d'abeilles qui reviennent a la cruche chargees du fruit de leur travail.
Lettres Edifiantes Tome 1. For a more modern account of this city I beg
leave to refer the reader to Captain Thomas Forrest's Voyage to the
Mergui Archipelago pages 38 to 60, where he will find a lively and
natural description of everything worthy of observation in the place,
with a detail of the circumstances attending his own reception at the
court, illustrated with an excellent plate.)
The king's palace, if it deserves the appellation, is a very rude and
uncouth piece of architecture, designed to resist the attacks of internal
enemies, and surrounded for that purpose with a moat and strong walls,
but without any regular plan, or view to the modern system of military
defence.*
(*Footnote. Near the gate of the palace are several pieces of brass
ordnance of an extraordinary size, of which some are Portuguese; but two
in particular, of English make, attract curiosity. They were sent by king
James the first to the reigning monarch of Acheen, and have still the
founder's name and the date legible upon them. The diameter of the bore
of one is eighteen inches; of the other twenty-two or twenty-four. Their
strength however does not appear to be in proportion to the calibre, nor
do they seem in other respects to be of adequate dimensions. James, who
abhorred bloodshed himself, was resolved that his present should not be
the instrument of it to others.)
AIR.
The air is esteemed comparatively healthy, the country being more free
from woods and stagnant water than most other parts; and fevers and
dysenteries, to which these local circumstances are supposed to give
occasion, are there said to be uncommon. But this must not be too readily
credited; for the degree of insalubrity attending situations in that
climate is known so frequently to alter, from inscrutable causes, that a
person who has resided only two or three years on a spot cannot pretend
to form a judgment; and the natives, from a natural partiality, are
always ready to extol the healthiness, as well as other imputed
advantages, of their native places.
INHABITANTS.
The Achinese differ much in their persons from the other Sumatrans, being
in general taller, stouter, and of darker complexions. They are by no
means in their present state a genuine people, but thought, with great
appearance of reason, to be a mixture of Battas and Malays, with chulias,
as they term the natives of the west of India, by whom their ports have
in all ages been frequented. In their dispositions they are more active
and industrious than some of their neighbours; they possess more
sagacity, have more knowledge of other countries, and as merchants they
deal upon a more extensive and liberal footing. But this last observation
applies rather to the traders at a distance from the capital and to their
transactions than to the conduct observed at Achin, which, according to
the temper and example of the reigning monarch, is often narrow,
extortionary, and oppressive. Their language is one of the general
dialects of the eastern islands, and its affinity to the Batta may be
observed in the comparative table; but they make use of the Malayan
character. In religion they are Mahometans, and having many priests, and
much intercourse with foreigners of the same faith, its forms and
ceremonies are observed with some strictness.
COMMERCE.
Although no longer the great mart of eastern commodities, Achin still
carries on a considerable trade, as well with private European merchants
as with the natives of that part of the coast of India called Telinga,
which is properly the country lying between the Kistna and Godavery
rivers; but the name, corrupted by the Malays to Kling, is commonly
applied to the whole coast of Coromandel. These supply it with salt,
cotton piece-goods, principally those called long-cloth white and blue,
and chintz with dark grounds; receiving in return gold-dust, raw silk of
inferior quality, betel-nut, patch-leaf (Melissa lotoria, called dilam by
the Malays) pepper, sulphur, camphor, and benzoin. The two latter are
carried thither from the river of Sungkel, where they are procured from
the country of the Battas, and the pepper from Pidir; but this article is
also exported from Susu to the amount of about two thousand tons
annually, where it sells at the rate of twelve dollars the pikul, chiefly
for gold and silver. The quality is not esteemed good, being gathered
before it is sufficiently ripe, and it is not cleaned like the Company's
pepper. The Americans have been of late years the chief purchasers. The
gold collected at Achin comes partly from the mountains in the
neighbourhood but chiefly from Nalabu and Susu. Its commerce,
independently of that of the out-ports, gives employment to from eight to
ten Kling vessels, of a hundred and fifty or two hundred tons burden,
which arrive annually from Porto Novo and Coringa about the month of
August, and sail again in February and March. These are not permitted to
touch at any places under the king's jurisdiction, on the eastern or
western coast, as it would be injurious to the profits of his trade, as
well as to his revenue from the customs and from the presents exacted on
the arrival of vessels, and for which his officers at those distant
places would not account with him. It must be understood that the king of
Achin, as is usual with the princes of this part of the world, is the
chief merchant of his capital, and endeavours to be, to the utmost of his
power, the monopolizer of its trade; but this he cannot at all times
effect, and the attempt has been the cause of frequent rebellions. There
is likewise a ship or two from Surat every year, the property of native
merchants there. The country is supplied with opium, taffetas, and
muslins from Bengal, and also with iron and many other articles of
merchandise, by the European traders.
PRODUCTIONS OF THE SOIL.
The soil being light and fertile produces abundance of rice, esculent
vegetables, much cotton, and the finest tropical fruits. Both the mango
and mangustin are said to be of excellent quality. Cattle and other
articles of provision are in plenty, and reasonable in price. The plough
is there drawn by oxen, and the general style of cultivation shows a
skill in agriculture superior to what is seen in other parts of the
island.
MANUFACTURES.
Those few arts and manufactures which are known in other parts of the
island prevail likewise here, and some of them are carried to more
perfection. A considerable fabric of a thick species of cotton cloth, and
of striped or chequered stuff for the short drawers worn both by Malays
and Achinese, is established here, and supplies an extensive foreign
demand, particularly in the Rau country, where they form part of the
dress of the women as well as men. They weave also very handsome and rich
silk pieces, of a particular form, for that part of the bodydress which
the Malays call kain-sarong; but this manufacture had much decreased at
the period when my inquiries were made, owing, as the people said, to an
unavoidable failure in the breed of silkworms, but more probably to the
decay of industry amongst themselves, proceeding from their continual
civil disturbances.
NAVIGATION.
They are expert and bold navigators, and employ a variety of vessels
according to the voyages they have occasion to undertake, and the
purposes either of commerce or war for which they design them. The river
is covered with a number of small fishing vessels which go to sea with
the morning breeze and return in the afternoon with the sea-wind, full
laden. These are named koleh, are raised about two streaks on a sampan
bottom, have one mast and an upright or square sail, but long in
proportion to its breadth, which rolls up. These sometimes make their
appearance so far to the southward as Bencoolen. The banting is a trading
vessel, of a larger class, having two masts, with upright sails like the
former, rising at the stem and stern, and somewhat resembling a Chinese
junk, excepting in its size. They have also very long narrow boats, with
two masts, and double or single outriggers, called balabang and jalor.
These are chiefly used as war-boats, mount guns of the size of swivels,
and carry a number of men. For representations of various kinds of
vessels employed by these eastern people the reader is referred to the
plates in Captain Forrest's two voyages.
COIN.
They have a small thin adulterated gold coin, rudely stamped with Arabic
characters, called mas or massiah. Its current value is said to be about
fifteen, and its intrinsic about twelve pence, or five Madras fanams.
Eighty of these are equal to the bangkal, of which twenty make a katti.
The tail, here an imaginary valuation, is one-fifth of the bangkal, and
equal to sixteen mas. The small leaden money, called pitis or cash, is
likewise struck here for the service of the bazaar; but neither these nor
the former afford any convenience to the foreign trader. Dollars and
rupees pass current, and most other species of coin are taken at a
valuation; but payments are commonly made in gold dust, and for that
purpose everyone is provided with small scales or steelyards, called
daching. They carry their gold about them, wrapped in small pieces of
bladder (or rather the integument of the heart), and often make purchases
to so small an amount as to employ grains of padi or other seeds for
weights.
GOVERNMENT.
The monarchy is hereditary, and is more or less absolute in proportion to
the talents of the reigning prince; no other bounds being set to his
authority than the counterbalance or check it meets with from the power
of the great vassals, and disaffection of the commonalty. But this
resistance is exerted in so irregular a manner, and with so little view
to the public good, that nothing like liberty results from it. They
experience only an alternative of tyranny and anarchy, or the former
under different shapes. Many of the other Sumatran people are in the
possession of a very high degree of freedom, founded upon a rigid
attachment to their old established customs and laws. The king usually
maintains a guard of a hundred sepoys (from the Coromandel coast) about
his palace, but pays them indifferently.
The grand council of the nation consists of the king or Sultan, the
maharaja, laksamana, paduka tuan, and bandhara. Inferior in rank to these
are the ulubalangs or military champions, among whom are several
gradations of rank, who sit on the king's right hand, and other officers
named kajuran, who sit on his left. At his feet sits a woman, to whom he
makes known his pleasure: by her it is communicated to a eunuch, who sits
next to her, and by him to an officer, named Kajuran Gondang, who then
proclaims it aloud to the assembly. There are also present two other
officers, one of whom has the government of the Bazaar or market, and the
other the superintending and carrying into execution the punishment of
criminals. All matters relative to commerce and the customs of the port
come under the jurisdiction of the Shabandar, who performs the ceremony
of giving the chap or licence for trade; which is done by lifting a
golden-hafted kris over the head of the merchant who arrives, and without
which he dares not to land his goods. Presents, the value of which are
become pretty regularly ascertained, are then sent to the king and his
officers. If the stranger be in the style of an ambassador the royal
elephants are sent down to carry him and his letters to the monarch's
presence; these being first delivered into the hands of a eunuch, who
places them in a silver dish, covered with rich silk, on the back of the
largest elephant, which is provided with a machine (houdar) for that
purpose. Within about a hundred yards of an open hall where the king sits
the cavalcade stops, and the ambassador dismounts and makes his obeisance
by bending his body and lifting his joined hands to his head. When he
enters the palace, if a European, he is obliged to take off his shoes,
and having made a second obeisance is seated upon a carpet on the floor,
where betel is brought to him. The throne was some years ago of ivory and
tortoiseshell; and when the place was governed by queens a curtain of
gauze was hung before it, which did not obstruct the audience, but
prevented any perfect view. The stranger, after some general discourse,
is then conducted to a separate building, where he is entertained with
the delicacies of the country by the officers of state, and in the
evening returns in the manner he came, surrounded by a prodigious number
of lights. On high days (ari raya) the king goes in great state, mounted
on an elephant richly caparisoned, to the great mosque, preceded by his
ulubalangs, who are armed nearly in the European manner.
DIVISION OF THE COUNTRY.
The whole kingdom is divided into certain small districts or communities,
called mukim, which seem to be equivalent to our parishes, and their
number is reckoned at one hundred and ninety, of which seventythree are
situated in the valley of Achin. Of these last are formed three larger
districts, named Duo-puluh duo (twenty-two), Duo-puluh-limo
(twenty-five), and Duo-puluh-anam (twenty-six), from the number of mukims
they respectively contain; each of which is governed by a panglima or
provincial governor, with an imam and four pangichis for the service of
each mosque. The country is extremely populous; but the computations with
which I have been furnished exceed so far all probability that I do not
venture to insert them.
REVENUES.
The regular tax or imposition to which the country is subject, for the
use of the crown, is one koyan (about eight hundred gallons) of padi from
each mukim, with a bag of rice, and about the value of one Spanish dollar
and a half in money, from each proprietor of a house, to be delivered at
the king's store in person, in return for which homage he never fails to
receive nearly an equivalent in tobacco or some other article. On certain
great festivals presents of cattle are made to the king by the
orang-kayas or nobles; but it is from the import and export customs on
merchandise that the revenue of the crown properly arises, and which of
course fluctuates considerably. What Europeans pay is between five and
six per cent, but the Kling merchants are understood to be charged with
much higher duties; in the whole not less than fifteen, of which twelve
in the hundred are taken out of the bales in the first instance, a
disparity they are enabled to support by the provident and frugal manner
in which they purchase their investments, the cheap rate at which they
navigate their vessels, and the manner of retailing their goods to the
natives. These sources of wealth are independent of the profit derived
from the trade, which is managed for his master by a person who is styled
the king's merchant. The revenues of the nobles accrue from taxes which
they lay, as feudal lords, upon the produce of the land cultivated by
their vassals. At Pidir a measure of rice is paid for every measure of
padi sown, which amounts to about a twentieth part. At Nalabu there is a
capitation tax of a dollar a year; and at various places on the inland
roads there are tolls collected upon provisions and goods which pass to
the capital.
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.
The kings of Achin possess a grant of territory along the sea-coast as
far down as Bencoolen from the sultan of Menangkabau, whose superiority
has always been admitted by them, and will be perhaps so long as he
claims no authority over them, and exacts neither tribute nor homage.
PUNISHMENTS.
Achin has ever been remarkable for the severity with which crimes are
punished by their laws; the same rigour still subsists, and there is no
commutation admitted, as is regularly established in the southern
countries. There is great reason however to conclude that the poor alone
experience the rod of justice; the nobles being secure from retribution
in the number of their dependants. Petty theft is punished by suspending
the criminal from a tree, with a gun or heavy weight tied to his feet; or
by cutting off a finger, a hand, or leg, according to the nature of the
theft. Many of these mutilated and wretched objects are daily to be seen
in the streets. Robbery, on the highway and housebreaking, are punished
by drowning, and afterwards exposing the body on a stake for a few days.
If the robbery is committed upon an imam or priest the sacrilege is
expiated by burning the criminal alive. A man who is convicted of
adultery or rape is seldom attempted to be screened by his friends, but
is delivered up to the friends and relations of the injured husband or
father. These take him to some large plain and, forming themselves in a
circle, place him in the middle. A large weapon, called a gadubong, is
then delivered to him by one of his family, and if he can force his way
through those who surround him and make his escape he is not liable to
further prosecution; but it commonly happens that he is instantly cut to
pieces. In this case his relations bury him as they would a dead buffalo,
refusing to admit the corpse into their house, or to perform any funeral
rites. Would it not be reasonable to conclude that the Achinese, with so
much discouragement to vice both from law and prejudice, must prove a
moral and virtuous people? yet all travellers agree in representing them
as one of the most dishonest and flagitious nations of the East, which
the history of their government will tend to corroborate.